MONDAY

MARCH 30

2015

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

This intense thriller, released in March 1979, presented a story of a TV fluff feature reporter (Jane Fonda) and her more radicalized cameraman (Michael Dougas) doing a piece on state-of-the-art nuclear energy when a power-plant manager in California (Jack Lemmon) shifts from proud proponent to concerned canary in a radioactive coal mine. At the time, the movie went nuclear itself, due to an astounding and frightening coincidence: 12 days after the film’s release, an accident similar to the meltdown dramatized in its fictional story occurred at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. Even divorced from those real-life headlines, though, The China Syndrome is frightening – and very intense, with all three leading actors turning in memorable performances.

CANCER: THE EMPEROR OF ALL MALADIES

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

Part 1 of 3. Ken Burns presents this three-part, six-hour documentary, which is directed by Barak Goodman and based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Siddhartha Mukherjee, who also appears in this PBS study. Edward Herrmann narrates, gently taking viewers on a tour that shows how the world has fought the war against cancer – on several fronts, and across many decades, sometimes with frustrating results. Mukherjee’s point is that we have to know how we’ve treated this disease over the years to understand what we’re doing wrong – and how, perhaps, to approach from other directions. Surprisingly, this first two-hour installment goes back centuries, then works its way back to relatively modern times – and WWI, and the popularization of cigarettes and the increase of lung cancer. The sequence on how scientists linked lung cancer to cigarettes, over the years, is especially fascinating. Check local listings.

BETTER CALL SAUL

AMC, 10:00 p.m. ET

This is the penultimate episode of this fabulous first season of Better Call Saul, and an episode that, based on promos, may fracture the fraternal bonds between Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk, soon to take on the persona of Saul) and his older brother Chuck (Michael McKean). And while Jimmy may be fighting the acquisition of new partners, Mike (Jonathan Banks) reluctantly is seeking them out.

THE COMEDY CENTRAL ROAST OF JUSTIN BIEBER

Comedy Central, 10:00 p.m. ET

This could be the point, and certainly is perceived and promoted by its subject as such, where the 21-year-old misbehaving celebrity owns up to his bad-boy past, demonstrates a sense of humor while watching others joke about it, and moves on to a new, more mature phase of his life. Or, it could just be the latest in a series of stunningly stupid missteps and mistakes. Time will tell. Meanwhile, here’s this newest roast from Comedy Central. Kevin Hart hosts, and Will Ferrell is one of the roasters – in his Ron Burgandy character.

BROADCAST NEWS

TCM, 10:15 p.m. ET

James L. Brooks, who already had generated one wonderful piece of pop-culture entertainment about TV newsrooms as co-executive producer of CBS’s The Mary Tyler Moore Show, provided another in this very funny, very smart 1987 movie. Albert Brooks (no relation) plays a talented but less than dynamic news correspondent, William Hurt plays the good-looking but vapid anchor rising quickly through the ranks, and Holly Hunter plays the TV news producer who deals with them both. It’s a delightful film, and, like Paddy Cheyefsky’s Network, also serves as a searing satire of the TV medium, written by someone who knew it well.

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David Bianculli

Founder / Editor

David Bianculli has been a TV critic since 1975, including a 14-year stint at the New York Daily News, and sees no reason to stop now. Currently, he's TV critic for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and is an occasional substitute host for that show. He's also an author and teaches TV and film history at New Jersey's Rowan University. His 2009 Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour', has been purchased for film rights. His latest, The Platinum Age of Television: From I Love Lucy to the Walking Dead, How TV Became Terrific, is an effusive guidebook that plots the path from the 1950s’ Golden Age to today’s era of quality TV.

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BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

AMC, 10:00 p.m. ET

Comedy Central, 10:00 p.m. ET

TCM, 10:15 p.m. ET

David Bianculli

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